Yellow Pages are Dead:

Time for Good Low Cost Marketing Ideas in 2016

By Thomas R. Reich PhD

Small Businesses can benefit greatly in 2016 from an improved low cost marketing plan or 15 ideas if you will.

Many small businesses owners don’t see the need for a cohesive marketing plan, they think marketing is expensive and for larger companies. Let’s look at low cost marketing ideas that can really boost your small business in 2016.

To make this work, remember that in the past, every small business bought yellow page adds. The yellow pages are dead, but for a business to remain strong, good marketing must replaces the Yellow Pages exposure that use to be taken for granted. You may find that without some of the low cost marketing ideas discussed here, your small businesses could be seriously underexposed.

1) Your first low cost marketing idea is to create and maintain a good functioning company website. Your website is you’re on line office, your virtual sales floor, the first impression many potential customers have of your small business and yes, it is your new yellow page add. Your website should also be an information resource for your products and services, and should be both optimized for SEO and key words. You must also have an active blog that relates to exactly what you do or the product you sell.

2) Develop a new brand identity; this low cost marketing idea may be easier than you think. How long has it been since you’ve updated your website or marketing materials? Maybe it’s time to take a fresh look and redesign your image, take advantage of the digital domain and the low cost logo updates that are available, they can get you to a whole new updated feeling. Customers and prospects respond to new ideas, updated looks and information which has been optimized for the internet and targeted to their needs. Today everything is about the content of your website, not massive traffic. Targeted content gets you targeted traffic, and a good content creation and marketing firm can get you there.

3) Survey existing customers, a low cost marketing idea which is easier than you may think. How do your customers feel about your products and services? Stay in touch through informal lunches or a professionally coordinated survey campaign. A survey is an excellent method for taking the pulse of your audience. The survey should include detailed questions about your products and services and how they directly benefit the customer.

4) Make a list of your strengths, this can be another low cost marketing idea generator. Are you the low price leader? Is your business the most experienced? Do you have the highest quality product or service? Try to list between 50 and 100 different and measurable strengths. This is a great exercise to develop new ideas for your marketing campaigns

5) Now time for an easy, low cost marketing idea, one you need to do now! The customer is always right… always. The time to prove this statement is when the customer experiences a problem with your product or service. Make a point to take responsibility and solve any problems that a customer might have immediately. Satisfied customers turn into repeat, long-term customers.

6) This next tip, is a low cost marketing idea if it helps you with the previous two ideas. Take a customer out to lunch. Now is the time to ask a reliable customer out to lunch. Touch base with them to see how your company is solving problems and meeting their needs.

7) Well here is the cost, though still a low cost marketing idea if you follow these guidelines. Establish an annual marketing budget. A good rule-of-thumb estimate for your marketing budget is 3% to 5% of annual sales. Retail businesses need to budget 7% to 10% of annual sales for their marketing budgets. Your budget should include a breakdown of all marketing costs including printing, social media, website maintenance and advertising placement.

8) Here is a very low cost marketing idea, but arguably the most important you can consider. Be positive in your outlook. It’s important to feel good about yourself and enjoy what you do for a living. If you have a positive attitude about your job, you will succeed by transferring that enthusiasm to other employees, customers and prospects.

9) *****A low cost marketing idea should always look at social media. Pinterest is one of the newest and most effective parts of a social media exposure program. You can find out more in these 3 articles:7 Free Pinterest Tools; Things to get You Noticed!

10) *****Low cost marketing idea #10 is to establish and maintain a good active Twitter account. To learn more about Twitter and how to make it effective for your small

11) *****Moving along with low cost marketing idea #11 have you fully updated your LinkedIn account on a regular basis? You must be at 100% on your profile, you need to update every week, you need a company page. Want to know more, take a look at:

14) *****The best low cost marketing idea I can give you is this. Learn how to connect your website, blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and any other social media fads that appear in 2013 into a network. Learn how to use back links and directories. The more you work on your on-like presents, the more your small business will benefit!

15) Here is your top low cost marketing idea for 2013, in fact it is the most importaqnt idea you will hear in regards to marketing. In order for anything we have talked about to truly succeed, you need to develop a solid marketing plan! You need a road map, a plan to keep you on track to sustainable goals, and a ruler to judge your success. Part of this plan should include your established budget and an ongoing record of each fassett of your marketing plans success to determin what worked and what to rethink. All low cost marketing ideas are successful if you learn and grow from them.

Bonus Low Cost Marketing Idea: Consider hiring a marketing company to help you with a complete formula, if marketing is not your thing. A firm that does marketing for lots of companies can often deliver a great marketing campaign at a very low cost, compared to struggling with a part of small business that can confuse many. Be careful, there are a lot of firms that clams to know what they are doing, hire a firm that trains you to maintain your marketing plan.

www.troblinreich.com

With low cost marketing ideas generating help, a good digital identity, a well branded small business and attention paid to your customers and their needs, success will be yours in 2014!

Have Questions or need some low cost help making your marketing ideas get the attention they deserve, email me at Director1@gmail.com and I will answer you directly and quickly!

Deep Rich Data, a new and dynamic marketing strategic tool, generates a highly visible and organically replicable campaign for its subscribers. DRD utilizes the interlinked nature of social media to create a strong marketing presence. Evidence of these results are found on various social media networks across the internet.

Deep Rich Data, a system of promotions through social media developed by Dr. Thomas R. Reich, has come full circle in over 30 years of promoting. Originally developed for Music industry promotions of independent pop groups in the 1990’s, DRD has evolved into a system to promote YouTube videos of today.

Reich wanted to come up with a way to promote small business informational videos in a way that could compete with the Fortune 1000’s virtually unlimited resources. Now, Deep Rich Data has proven itself in the small business arena, as outlined in the press release below. (Can be seen in over 180 papers nationwide including Newsday, Miami Harold and San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Kansas City Star, Houston Chronicle, The LA Daily News, International Business Times, CBS Money Watch and PRWeb)

A group rule to follow when trying to promote any video on YouTube was developed by Dr. Reich when he was giving seminars to students in the Entertainment Marketing Department at Full Sale University. The rules are simple and open-ended:

1) A video must be well produced to become viral, only 1 in 20,000 may brake on sheer luck with a poor quality video.

2) A video should be 30 seconds to 3 minutes maximum, there is a reason that the pop radio version of songs and the MTV versions of songs are no longer than 3 minutes.

3) Always explain who you are why this is important to the viewer and where they can find you. Even music videos have studio, group, producer etc.

4) Be very animated, a static camera vies of a face will not become a viral video. Many fast cuts, cut ins and scene changes are needed in even a 30 second video.

5) Always ask for a response on a business video, a “call to action”

6) Always include a link to your website, email and Phone #, you want them to find you

7) KEEP IT SHORT!

Here is the video we had so much luck with on YouTube over the last few weeks:

See that it follows every rule above. That video had 276,000 views at the time of this writing, and should be higher by now.

Want to learn more about Deep Rich Data? Look through the directory here lots of stuff on Deep Rich Data, go to www.deeprichdata.com and sign up for a free evaluation to see if we can apply Deep Rich Data to your promotional video. Finally comment, Dr. Reich does answer all questions about Deep Rich Data, or any topic dealing with Social Media.

International Barter Company Finds Social Media Supercharged with New DRD Promotion

By Dr. Thomas R. Reich

Barter Rewards, an Orlando based barter exchange company; hit it big again this week with an amusing YouTube video, “21st Century Trade Exchange,” featuring a great George W. Bush impersonation by John C. Morgan. The video had received almost no attention in 3 months until Tate Carson, founder of Barter Rewards, asked for DRD or Deep Rich Data to be applied.

“We were told that this DRD would help our promotions, but from 311 views to almost 300,000 was way beyond expectations.” Carson revealed, “Our other social media outlets jumped up in followers as well as a good increase in visits to our website.”

BizCentral USA, a national business services company based in Orlando, has been contracted to do Barter Rewards promotions for some time and is a customer of Barter

Dr. Thomas R. Reich Developer of Deep Rich Data

Rewards as well.

Marketing Director Thomas R. Reich developed the basics of Deep Rich Data back in the 1990s. “I was promoting music back then for major groups like Yes and INXS for

Warner Atlantic and others. However, I had independent clients too like 2 Live Crew and D. J. Magic Mike,” Reich explained. “To get smaller independent artists exposure and charting, we needed taste makers, free goods and street promotion; DRD is based on the same assumptions.”

“We have seen a noticeable rise in barter sign ups here at Barter Rewards since Tom Reich and BizCentral USA began promotion through our social media and YouTube,” Carson added.

“Deep Rich Data will continue to evolve, but I see a great start here, it works,” Dr. Reich stated. “It is a new market with new tools, but classic marketing, basic promotion, and hard work pays off in promo biz, even on the internet”

Barter Rewards can be reached at 407.690.6824 or contact BizCentral USA for more information at 407.857.9002 ex 514. Take a look at the video causing all the commotion:

How Deep Rich Data Works as a Traffic Generator

The newest traffic generator DRD or Deep Rich Data was developed by Thomas R. Reich PhD to help clients with sluggish websites and landing pages. With Deep Rich Data methods, even dull or mundane subjects become search magnets. The coolest thing about DRD is that the system is not a gimmick, not a fancy program, or a get rich quick MLM scheme.

DRD is a simple concept that works with Pinterest and Twitter to promote blogs, website pages, YouTube videos, landing pages on FaceBook and LinkedIn, just about anything with a URL. It is a straight forward method that takes time and patients but delivers results that are undeniable.

The system not only delivers Pinterest traffic from the Owners Pinterest site but from every Pinterest repinner as well, and all the Twitter activity and retweets as well. But the real boost to traffic does not involve either Pinterest or Twitter, it is traffic generated from organic Google and Bing searches, primarily image searches, but since DRD uses rich snippets, the organic search goes to regular organic search as well.

To use Deep Rich Data properly, the originator needs to fully understand Pinterest and Twitter. The website must have a fully enabled Pinterest site with multiple boards which have been SEO optimized for that website. Also, a fully enabled Twitter site is needed, with at least 1000 true followers. All these together will allow DRD to help disseminate the message and stimulate the organic search properties.

Let’s say a company is promoting a special sale on floor cleaning in Orlando Florida, obviously leads from California are not desirable. At the same time if a company was promoting a new kitchen aid for peeling a papaya, it would want as wide an area of leads as possible since the company would be shipping the item anywhere rather than servicing locally. Deep rich Data can work for either situation with equal efficacy.

The basic foundation of DRD is the SEO of an organization’s Pinterest site. SEO must be in place and pointed either to the product or service. If dealing with a local product, use random local, city and state as descriptor words in the SEO.

Back links are also a key element of Deep Rich Data, they work to direct the picture to selected locations within the target website or desired landing page. Without the URL re-direct, the system will not work. Just creating a clear SEO path is not enough, a picture must have a URL redirect for DRD to function as a mass Lead generator.

Use Deep Rich Data for:

• Event Announcements

• Specific Products

• Specific Services

• Regional or Local Re-directs

• Website Landing Page

• Website Home Page

• Specific Page within the Website

• FaceBook or LinkedIn page

• Video (YouTube or Vimeo)

• Recorded Webinar or Seminar

The direct point is not a factor; anything with a URL can be specifically and definitively programmed in advance. The key to Deep Rich Data method success is the SEO and key word selection and careful selection of the pictures on the Pinterest boards. Keywords are the crucial to credible traffic. Remember that due to the Pinterest file share rules, the pictures that cause the re-direct of traffic do not necessarily come from the target website or any specific location associated with the target.

Deep Rich Data is in its infancy, growing daily and becoming more viable with each new success. Have questions or suggestions, let us hear from you, together we can make Deep Rich Data a tool for greatness, it’s worth the effort!

Things to get You Noticed! 7 Free Pinterest Tools

Pinterest is fast becoming one of the biggest social media sites in the world and this means it is important to find its uses to expose your busines. The Pinterest tools contained in Pinterest can let you easily share any photos you find on the almost any website and socialize with anyone in the world through Pinterest. It makes sharing easier, and you can gain exposure with many more people who share your interest.

Pinterest tools are not just for image-sharing, u can even study your social activity and find out your score on Pinterest, so you’ll know how well your message is getting out, or by using a simple web application, find out how your social activity can potentially benefit you.

Here you will find 7 useful Pinterest tools you can use with your Pinterest from analyzing your pinterest activity to study your score and influence, pinning quotes, adding additional button as well as activity column on Pinterest page.

1. Pinpuf

Pinpuff is a Pinterest tools where you can calculate your Pinfluence, a measure of your popularity on Pinterest and it also provides the value of your every pin. To get started with your analytics on Pinpuff, go to the website http://pinpuff.com/ and fill in your email and your Pinterest username, then click on the button ‘Calculate your Pinfluence’.

You will be redirected to your pinfluence page, where you will find your pinterest analytics.

In the score page, you will be presented with your total score at the right hand sidebar next to your Pinterest profile image. You will also get to know an estimation of your pin valuation as well as cost per click. Apart from that, you will see your reach score based on your follower and activity score. It is just for fun but gives you an idea of how you are doing getting attention with your pins!

There’s also a virility score, and you can also find out the total followers, pins, repins and likes of each board you created in Pinterest.

2. Pinreach

Similar to Pinpuff, Pinreach is a Pinterest tools that also provides you with analytics to study your influence on Pinterest except without the value estimation you can find in Pinpuff. It does however have othe features to offer.

To use Pinreach, visit the website and click on the ‘Sign Up’ button and fill up the registration form together with your Pinterest username.

When registration is completed, you will be redirected to your analytics page. There are four tabs available on Pinreach to study your Pinterest tools activity in details.

Analytics

The first tab ‘Analytics’ is where you will be able to see your total pins, repins, likes, followers and more from the right sidebar, and you will also see graph of your score as well as activity changes since you last login to Pinreach.

Boards

Boards will show you the total number of pins, repins, followers and comments based on boards you created on Pinterest.

Pins

The Pins tab will show you a collection of your popular pins on pinterest.

Influential Followers

This tab will let you know who are among your followers has a strong influence on Pinterest. You can also click on their image to find out their Pinreach.

3. Pin A Quote

Pin A Quote is a set of Pinterest tools that allows you to post a quote to Pinterest. Although this is just a small part of what you can get from Pinstamatic, Pin A Quote makes it easy with their bookmarklet – you can simply post a quote by highlighting a text on any website much like how you Pin an image from a site.

To grab the bookmarklet, visit the Pin A Quote homepage, drag the button ‘Pin A Quote’ to your browser’s bookmark bar, and it is ready for use.

To pin a quote to Pinterest, all you need to do is simply highlight any sentence or quote you found on any website, then click on the Pin A Quote bookmarklet. A form will appear, fill it up and post it to your Pinterest.

4. Pin Search

Pin Search is an extension for Chrome browser and is a set of Pinterest tools that will let you easily find more related photos and information of a photo you found on Pinterest.

To start using, head over to the Pin Search extension page on your Chrome browser and click ‘Add to Chrome’.

Once added to Chrome, open the Pinterest website and you will see an additional ‘Search’ button at the bottom of the ‘Comment’ button, when you hover over any images on Pinterest.

Clicking on this ‘Search’ button will direct you to a Google’s search results page that is related to the image you selected.

5. Recent Activity Expander

Also an extension for Chrome, Recent Activity Expander is a set of Pinterest tools that will add an extra column on the left side of your Pinterest page, and list down all recent activity related to your account. It allows you to see who has followed and repinned your items since your last login.

To start using, head over to Recent Activity Expander‘s Chrome extension page and add it to your Chrome. Once added, open Pinterest website and you will see your Recent Activities in a column on the left.

6. Pinterest Right-Click

Pinterest Right-Click is an extension for your Firefox browser, it adds an additional right-click item to your right-click menu so you can pin any photos you found on the Internet.

To get this Pinterest tool, open the Pinterest Right-Click extension page on your Firefox and install.

Now when installation is completed, you can search or browse any images from your Firefox, and when you find any photos you want to pin to Pinterest, right-click on the image and select ‘Pin image’.

When you selected ‘Pin Image’, as usual a popup window will appear for you to fill up the details of the image, which board you want to post the image to etc. Once completed, select ‘Pin it’.

7. Pinterest Pro

Pinterest Pro is another set of Pinterest tools for Chrome extension that comes with 3 main features to enhance your Pinterest experience: ‘Pin to Pinterest’ accessible by the right-click menu, image zooming and ‘Popular Pin Dropdown’.

You can have these features on your Chrome browser by installing Pinterest Pro from the extension page. To pin a photo, just select ‘Pin to Pinterest’ by right click. A new tab will appear; fill up with the details of the image and it will be posted on your Pinterest board.

When you browse a Pinterest page, you can enlarge every pinned image without having to click on that image. Simply hover over any image with your cursor and the image will be enlarged.

The third feature is the Popular Pin Down button you can find at the top-right corner of your browser. Click this button to check out the latest popular content on Pinterest without having to load the website.

Conclusion

Now with these 7 Pinterest tools, you can start to analyze your social activity on Pinterest and do more research on how to reach your audiences or grab more influence that would be beneficial for Marketing your product, service or event.

The fundamentals of social media engagement; common sense, not tips and tricks.

It’s very convenient for social media marketing firms to make the fundamentals of social media engagement out to be more difficult than they really are. The secret to success is basic, common sense, and the fundamentals of social media engagement follows the same rules that govern real life business networks and relationships.

I hope this is the simplest and clearest thing you’ve ever heard about the fundamentals of social media engagement for small business. Here it goes:

In order to successfully market your small business through social media you need to do two things:

(1) Grow and nurture your online networks

(2) Create and share great content

Let me say that again.

In order to successfully market your small business through the fundamentals of social media engagement, you need to do two things:

(1) Grow and nurture your online networks

(2) Create and share great content

No secrets. No tips. No tricks. Just common sense.

Your small business social media marketing efforts start with you – the business owner and executives.

If you haven’t put the time into the fundamentals of social media engagement, effectively building and nurturing your own, personal, online networks (your human marketing platform), then your social media efforts will likely be an uphill battle. There aren’t any tips or tricks to shortcut the fundamentals of social media engagement and the process it takes to get there. It’s a commitment very much like going to networking events, trade shows and business expos with all of the necessary follow up.

Your social media success will be determined by your capacity to grow your online networks and strengthening those relationships through the fundamentals of social media engagement. That means commenting, posting, tweeting, sharing, retweeting, liking, plussing, friending, following, connecting…well you get the point. It’s a daily commitment and there is no way around it.

You need to give your online networks reasons to tell their networks about you and your business.

Having big networks and great relationships will only take you so far. If you want to get people talking about you online and telling their friends about your business, you must create and share great content. This is the major part of the fundamentals of social media engagement.

Whether you are sharing great industry related articles, writing killer blog posts, designing stunning infographics, or filming compelling interviews, you need to be creating and sharing something that your online networks will find valuable enough to share with their networks.

This is what makes social media work. It’s the truth about what it takes to be successful marketing your small business through the fundamentals of social media engagement. And again, there aren’t any tips, tricks or secrets to give you a shortcut.

If you want to market your small business successfully through social media, you need to keep your ground game strong. Keep building new relationships, making more contacts and satisfying customers. Use these relationships as the foundation to grow and nurture your online networks. In order to get these folks talking about your business you need to create and share great content that they will want to share with their friends and networks.

If you are doing this, and following the fundamentals of social media engagement, then maybe you are ready for some social media tips and tricks. Not a moment sooner…

Top 10 Website Design Tips: Tricks to make Your Website Shine!

By Dr. Thomas R. Reich

1.Keep the website design clutter-free and simple:

It is not necessary to add all types of cool Photoshop effects on your site in website design; these effects can result in cluttering the page and may actually overwhelm the users who are looking for the information you are providing. Keeping the website design design simple by:

Making sure visuals & text in website design complement each other, not overpower each other.

Optimization of images is essential, so that they download quickly.

Develop focal points by placing important information for the user in key spots above the line in your website design (the area above the line where you have to scroll the screen for more information).

Organize all pages in a manner that is easy for users to find information they are searching for.

2. Create visual communication that gets your message across:

It is important to project the image of your product, service or mission with the very colors of your website design. For example, a website selling biodegradable goods can utilize the color green, while a company selling shoes for little girls might use pink as the main color on their website design.

Visual items catch more attention than plain text in website design. To make navigation easier, you might use visually moving or color changing buttons instead of text links to an item you want the visitor to click on. Alternatively, use pictures or thumbnails as links in the website design, rather than text links.

Gain visitors attention by using such visual tools as arrows, color changing text or pictures that change when clicked right within the page they are on. An example of this might be a colorful section of a salesman holding a price list and the words “click here”, when clicked, the price list appears within the area of the page where the salesman holding the price list had been.

3. Provide rich content in website design:

For visitors to want to stay on your website, the page they are looking at must be visually interesting and satisfy some need. Visuals bring the user to the site but content is what keeps them on the website.

Keep the language in your text as conversational as possible & keep it lively, interesting, and informative.

Good content should make interesting reading while remaining short and concise; most visitors do not have the time or patience to read lengthy content, this is an important part of your website design.

Try creating interaction with users within your website design, by using feedback & comment forms, by doing this your visitors will feel connected to you.

4. Maintaining narrow text may help keep content simple and easy to read:

If the text layout on your page in the website design is narrow (in column form), visitors will be more likely to scroll sideways to read the text, rather than read full page content. This is the reason why most newspapers use narrow columns. Such layout makes text easily readable and more appealing. It also helps when readers are visiting from a mobile phone or even a tablet.

5. Keep website design consistent:

Keep the website design consistent across the site so visitors can easily find important information, and know they remain on your website.

Use same color combination in all pages.

Keep main link locations consistent throughout the website design, usually across the top of the page.

Do not use different fonts across the website design, consistent fonts make a consistent website.

Try to use fonts that are easily readable, ones that are clear, bold and distinct.

6. Make visitors want to come back:

There are millions of websites; most visitors get overloaded with choices, so we must help increase the odds that your visitors will want to return to your site. To accomplish this you must provide them with the information they are looking for, quickly and easily, and keep your website design on target. You must become an information source for your specific product, service, or mission.

7. Stick to conventions:

In website design has conventions that are standard design elements, basic website design elliments most surfers expect to see. As an example, visitors are accustomed to finding RSS, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn links in certain format (the bird for Twitter, LN for LinkedIn and so on) within most websites. If you use non-standard links in your website design, chances are your visitors will miss the important links entirely, defeating your well-meaning efforts.

8. Provide easy navigation within your website design and its blog:

Keep the navigation clear and easy to make the visitors stay on the site while locating important links. Check and double check to see that all the links in your website design open what they were intended to open. If one link malfunctions, does not work or links to the wrong page or site, your visitor will likely leave forever!

9. Test browser compatibility on multiple browser formats:

Make sure that the site opens properly in all the browsers as part of the website design process (Google, Explorer, Firefox and any other browser you can test it on). Do not just test the site on your usual browser, test on many browsers on several different computers. Correct all problems so that your website design looks perfect in all browsers and all computers, both wide screen and square, large and small before you launch the website design to the public. Now is the time to insure there are no compatibility issues. Make sure to test your new website design on smart phones as well as tablets, and don’t forget Mac phones, tablets and computers.

10. Test the usability of your website design, how do others react to the new site when seeing it for the first time?

You may think that your new website design is fantastic and easy to use, but you need to make sure visitors to your site feel the same. A usability study should done with other people looking at your site for the first time, this may uncover problems in the website design process, easily addressed before launching and promoting your site to the public. You may find what you designed as an easy to understand feature, is not so easy for your average user. Perform usability tests, as part of your website design process, on a regular basis to make sure the site is up to date with no errors. Update your website design frequently, to make the experience of visiting your website a continuing pleasure!

12 Marketing Tips that Work for any Small Business Marketing Plan!

by Thomas R. Reich

1) Get to the point with you slogan in small business marketing, and make it unique. If you’re USP (Unique Selling Proposition) sounds like everyone else’s, then it is not exciting, it’s not engaging, it Is not a USP. You want it to be niche focused and you want it to motivate the target audience to positively remember you and your brand.

2) Walk in your customers shoes. All successful small business marketing starts and ends with the target customer. Ask

Walk in your customers shoes to understand small business marketing

yourself, who is the customer and what is it about that person that will draw him to your product or service? What problems does that client have? What might they do to find a solution, and what priority would they put on finding a solution to that particular problem, what is it worth to them? What options do they have to solve that need other than your product or service? Where will your ideal client look for answers, what do they do with their spare time? With this information in hand you can begin to target specific actions in marketing your product that will expose that unique niche to your product or service.

3) Show what is unique about your product or service. Focus all your small business marketing efforts on emphasizing the benefits of your product or service, other than highlighting obvious points, such as product features. Wherever possible, mention the words ‘you’ and ‘your’, as this will make your customers feel more individual!

4) Don’t advertise like a big business. Big Businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales. A small business marketing can’t afford to do that. Instead, design your advertising to produce sales, and produce them now! One way to accomplish this is to always include an offer in your advertising, but always remember to provide an easy way for prospective customers to respond. Always include traceable links from the ad to your phone number, website and social media. Make sure the second a customer wants more information on an offer, they can reach you!

5) Try some unusual marketing methods. Look for some unconventional small business marketing methods your competitors are overlooking. You may discover some highly profitable ways to generate sales and avoid competition. For example, print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your website or generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.

6) Set up joint promotions with other small business or organizations. Contact some non-competing small businesses or nonprofit organizations serving customers in your market. Offer to publicize their product or service to your customers in exchange for their publicizing your services to their customers. This usually produces a large number of sales for a very low cost when it is done with the right organization.

Get to the point!

7) Get to the point. Your message needs to be said in one sentence. A piece of advertising needs to be brief and easy to understand. Whether it is a free ad on social media or your website or a paid ad in a newspaper, it needs to get the point across quickly. The eyes of your customer rove over a page, one sentence will catch attention, a paragraph will be looked over no matter how good it is. Remember, in small business marketing, a picture is worth a thousand words!

8) Ask your customers for testimonials. Testimonials are gold dust! Whenever anyone says anything about your product or service, ask them if they would mind providing an endorsement for you. The more testimonials you put together, the more confident your prospective customers will be of the service you are delivering and the value your product can add to them.

9) Take advantage of your customer base. Your customers already know and trust you. It is easier to get more business from them than to get any business from somebody who never bought from you. Take advantage of this small business marketing advantage by creating some special deals just for your existing customers. Announce new products and services before you announce them to the general market.

10) Convert customers into publicity agents for your business. Develop an incentive for them to tell associates and friends about the value of your products or services. An endorsement from your customer is more effective piece of small business marketing than any amount of advertising you could ever do and the incentive to your existing customers can encourage additional sales from them.

11) Offer a cheaper version of your product or service. Some prospective customers are not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service. Others are more interested in paying a low price than in getting the best quality. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price.

12) Offer a premium version of your product or service. Not all customers are looking for a cheap price. Many are willing to pay a higher price to get a premium product or service, or to have priority VIP service or delivery. You can boost your small business marketing, average sale and your total revenue by offering a more comprehensive product or service, or by combining several products or services in a special premium package offer for a higher price.

13) BONUS ADVICE: Act on feedback. No one knows more about your customers experience than your customers themselves! Try your hardest to get as much feedback from each and every customer as you can, about your product or service and the service they experienced at your place of business in the process. Take every opportunity to ask your customers what they think about your product, your employees and what you could do to improve the experience. This helps two fold. First, your customer feels needed, and evolved in your business and is more likely to come back and to recommend friends and associates. Second a successful small business marketing organization uses this information to constantly improve and evolve their business.

Don’t miss our FREE webinar Wednesday! This Wednesday at 2PM EST we will be discussing “Marketing for Small Business”, a topic appropriate whether you are running a small business that is for profit or nonprofit. Small business marketing is a subject that concerns all of us and Tom can give you some tips and tricks that can help you greatly with your small business marketing!

Wednesday, July 18 2012
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM online from BizCentralUSA
Key Note Speaker: Thomas R. Reich, Marketing CoordinatorJoin us for a fun and fact filled free webinar, one that will expose you to a world of free marketing. among other things discussed will be: Social media for small business, an ever expanding marketing tool; you will touch on the basics of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. Then we will touch on tips and tricks in many areas of marketing so new even the experts will want to attend. This is a must see for any business interested in increased marketing presents! You will benefit greatly from the knowledge if only to enlighten you on what may be available for your company. As usual, this fact filled webinar is FREE.Can you afford to miss a learning opportunity like this? As always this webinar is free!As always, feel free to contact Tom Reich for any marketing related questions at tom@bizcentralusa.com.Please Register for this information – packed Webinar, even if you cannot attend at the listed time, we will send all registrants a link to the recorded version of the live event the following day.

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BE PREPARED WITH BUSINESS LAW IN 2012

By Thomas R. Reich

1) Lack of or Poor Organizational Documents! A good understanding of small business law will tell you that you must create and maintain the right organizational documents, to prepare your small business for interaction with the real world. You must first determine what type of structure you want your small business to operate under. Small Business Law dictates that it does not stop there; there are annual filing requirements and documents that must be maintained. Don’t be a casualty, do your paperwork, it is even more important with Small Business Law!

2) Lack of Proper Corporate Records! If you say “we are a small business, Ill remember the records and do them later” you will fail. Keeping up with records is a must to be prepared in Smal Business law and takes little time if you make it an ongoing process!

3) Accepting Money from Investors Without Understanding Securities Business Laws! There are ways to accept investment, into your new small business, that are legal and this is the only way they should be accepted. Consult a lawyer first if you are unsure of Small Business Law. This is the rule of thumb; make sure you and your investors are protected before you get yourself in hot water.

4) Failing to have Founders and Employees Non-Compete Agreements! If you or your new employees have come from a similar business and are now competing with an old employer, make sure there is not aNon-Compete agreement enforce. By the same token protect yourself under small business law if what you are doing is of a unique nature.

5) Weak or Non-Existent Vendor/Client Written Agreements. If you go into your new business on a handshake agreement to provide services or products to a friend or acquaintance, this is very risky. Having a simple contract, one with terms and a time period assures that your demand will still be there when you take the plunge and open your doors. Without a written agreement, one using Small Business Law, you may find the promised small business does not materialize and you have no legal recourse.

6) Litigation! Pure and simple, many new small business owners feel they are in the cat bird seat now and they “Aren’t going to take this anymore!” You must avoid all litigation if possible, work out problems without filing suit. Litigation is very expensive and at the small business law level, it can bankrupt a company from the preparation of just one law suit, this is Small Business Law fact!. Collections are another matter, but there are professionals for that,STAY AWAY FROM LITIGATION IF YOU POSSIBLY CAN!

7) Collections! Collections can be a problem in many small businesses, and it is tempting to take things personally. First; work directly with the customer, sometimes a personal call and request for payment of promised funds from the CEO does the trick. Second; never threaten or harass the customer quoting small business law, you could cross a line that puts them in the driver’s seat legally. When the account can’t be salvaged with sugar, find good collections groups that work on a percentage and let them sow the vinegar, they are much more likely to be an expert in Small Business Law, and much more likely to collect!

8) Non-Performance Alleged Against Your Business! It is most advisable that you do your level best to go overboard and fix non-performance allegations against you. As a new business, you do not want negative statements on services like “Rip off Report” or the BBB. Offer a refund or the bend over backwards to fix the problem. Defending against a law suit is both unproductive and expensive, avoid if you can, this is the case with all Small Business Law, avoid litigation if you can.

9) Non-Performance of Other Service Providers to Your Small Business! Same rules apply; avoid Litigation if you possibly can. A call from your CEO or Director may do the trick, be cool calm and consolatory. Remember they do not want negative reports on “Rip off Report” or the BBB either. Again, Litigation when dealing with small business law is very expensive, so do you level best to work out difference civilly, but calmly and reserve the right to do what is necessary to receive services or products you have paid for. Remember how you handled the other side of this issue, and use that experience to look at the other company’s point of view. Never loose site of your rights under Small Business Law, but keep your eyes clearly on Public Relations and you image in the community!.

10) No Internal Controls, Guidelines, Manuals, etc! It is important to have written rules and regulations to govern your business on a daily basis. Internal Controls, Guidelines and Manuals are welcome by your employees, it lets them know exactly where they stand. You will find that if rules are in place, you employees will not only follow what is expected of them but be thankful for knowing how to operate within guidelines. You will be secure in the knowledge that you have done what you can to prepare your company under Small Business Law.